Chapter 95 The warning
Two days after the call from Director Vance, a package arrived at the bakery.
Not intercepted this time, Just…delivered. It was a Regular mail. Claire signed for it before anyone could stop her.
“It’s addressed to Elena,” she said, confused. “Who sends mail to a six-month-old?”
Ariella grabbed it, it was heavy. Book-sized. Postmarked from inside the federal detention center where Victoria was being held.
“Don’t open it,” Aiden said immediately.
But it was too late, Claire had already cut the tape.
Inside was a children’s book, beautifully illustrated. The Princess and the Tower by an author Ariella had never heard of.
And a note, in Victoria’s handwriting saying:
For my great-niece. Every princess needs a good story. Read it to her on her birthday. …Aunt Victoria
“Burn it,” Aiden said.
“Wait.” Ariella opened the book carefully and Flipped through pages. A fairy tale about a princess locked in a tower, waiting for rescue that never came.
On the last page, written in invisible ink that only showed under the bakery’s fluorescent lights:
The tower has no doors. The princess has no escape. And when the clock strikes midnight on her first birthday, the tower burns. Everyone inside dies. Unless you give me what I want.
You have three months.
Tick tock.
Ariella dropped the book like it was poison.
“What does she want?” Claire asked, reading over her shoulder.
“Everything,” Aiden said quietly. “She wants us to recant. To say we fabricated evidence. To get her acquitted.”
“And if we don’t?”
“Then on Elena’s first birthday, something happens. Something that kills her, and everyone we love.”
Ariella was shaking. “How is she doing this from prison? She’s in isolation, no phone calls, no visitors except lawyers…”
“The lawyers,” Aiden said. “She’s using her lawyers to pass messages. To activate whatever she planned before she was arrested.”
“We tell Director Vance…”
“And she investigates Victoria’s lawyers for three months while we wait to see if our daughter dies on her birthday?” Ariella’s voice was rising. “No. No, we’re not doing that.”
“Then what do we do?”
Good question.
That night, while Elena slept, Ariella and Aiden made a list.
What We Know:
∙Victoria planned something to activate on Elena’s first birthday
∙She’s communicating through lawyers
∙She wants us to recant our testimony
∙She’s willing to kill Elena to get it
What We Don’t Know:
∙What the threat actually is
∙Who’s helping her on the outside
∙How to stop it
“We could recant,” Aiden said quietly. “Tell the court we were coerced, that the evidence was fabricated, and Get her acquitted.”
“And then what? She walks free. The network rebuilds. And we live the rest of our lives knowing we let them win?”
“But Elena lives.”
“Does she?” Ariella challenged. “Victoria’s killed seventy-three people. You think she’ll honor a deal? She’ll take our recantation, get acquitted, and kill us anyway. Loose ends.”
Aiden knew she was right.
“So we find out what she’s planning,” he said. “We have three months. We have use them.”
“How?”
“Let's visit her in prison, Face to face.”
The federal detention center was two hours upstate with Maximum security. The kind of place designed to hold the worst of the worst.
Victoria Frost was in isolation. Twenty-three hours a day in a cell and One hour of recreation alone.
Getting approved for a visit took three weeks of paperwork and security clearances.
They left Elena with Claire and Drove in silence.
The visiting room was white, sterile, with cameras everywhere. Victoria sat behind reinforced glass, in an orange jumpsuit that made her look almost human.
Almost.
“Aiden,” she said warmly, like they were at a family dinner. “Ariella. How lovely to see you.”
“What do you want?” Aiden asked flatly.
“I want what everyone wants, Freedom, Exoneration, The life I built back.”
“You built it on corpses.”
“And you destroyed it with lies.” Victoria’s smile was ice. “Those videos were very clever, almost convincing me they were real. But my lawyers have experts who’ll prove they’re deepfakes. Juries are stupid. They’ll believe whatever sounds most comfortable.”
“We didn’t fabricate anything…”
“Prove it In court. Where evidence can be challenged and witnesses cross-examined and reasonable doubt exists.” She leaned forward. “You can’t Because trials aren’t about truth, They’re about who tells the better story.”
“Why Elena?” Ariella asked. “She’s a baby, and also innocent. What did she ever do to you?”
“Exist.” Victoria’s voice went cold. “She’s leverage. The thing you love most, The thing you’ll sacrifice everything to protect. Basic strategy, really.”
“If you hurt her…”
“You’ll what? I’m already in prison for life on Multiple counts of murder. What more can you do to me?” Victoria smiled. “But you…you have everything to lose. Your daughter, Your freedom, Your precious moral high ground, So here’s my offer: recant your testimony. Both of you. Say you were manipulated by Marcus Chen, who was actually working for a rival faction trying to take over the network, Say the evidence was planted, that you were naive and stupid and sorry.”
“That’s insane…”
“That’s the deal. You recant, I get acquitted, and Elena lives to see her second birthday.”
“And if we refuse?”
Victoria pulled out a piece of paper and Slid it through the slot.
A photograph of Elena Asleep in her crib in Claire’s apartment.
Taken yesterday.
“I have people everywhere,” Victoria said pleasantly. “People you don’t suspect, People who seem helpful and kind. People who are waiting for one word from me to activate protocols you can’t imagine.”
Ariella’s vision blurred with rage. “You’re bluffing. You’re in isolation. Your communications are monitored…”
“Are they? Or do you just assume they are? Prisons are run by people and people can be bought. Guards, Wardens, Even FBI agents assigned to monitor me.” Victoria’s smile widened. “I’ve had forty years to build contingencies, Did you really think arresting me would end it?”
“We’ll find your people…”
“You have ninety-one days. Good luck.” She stood. “Oh, and Ariella? Congratulations on the pregnancy. Boy or girl?”
Ariella went cold. “How do you…”
“I know everything. The network knows everything. We always have.” Victoria turned to leave, then paused. “One more thing. Tell Marcus I said hello. I hear his surgery went well. Be a shame if he had complications.”
The guard led her away.
Ariella and Aiden sat in stunned silence.
“She knows about the pregnancy,” Ariella whispered. “I haven’t told anyone except you and my doctor…”
“Your doctor.” Aiden pulled out his phone. “Where does she practice?”
“Manhattan OB-GYN. Why?”
He was already searching for the doctor’s bio, her education, Her previous employment.
One line made him stop.
Previously practiced at Frost Memorial Hospital, funded by Richard Frost.
“No,” Ariella breathed.
“Victoria placed people years ago, in hospitals, in government, In positions where they could monitor us forever.” Aiden’s hands were shaking. “We’re not fighting a network. We’re fighting a system designed to last generations.”
“Then how do we win?”
“I don’t know.”
They drove back in silence.
Stopped at a rest area halfway home because Ariella needed air and space. She needed something other than the crushing weight of knowing they were being watched by people they’d never suspect.
“We should run,” she said. “Take Elena, Leave the country, change our names, and just disappear.”
“She’ll find us, She found us in a safe house guarded by FBI agents. She’ll find us anywhere.”
“Then what?”
Aiden looked at her. “ lets give her what she wants.”
“What?”
“Not really, but let us make her think we’re considering it. We reach out to her lawyers. Say we’re negotiating terms, buy time while figuring out who her inside people are.”
“That’s…that could actually work.”
“Or it could backfire and she’ll activate her contingency early.”
“So we’re gambling with our daughter’s life.”
“We’ve been gambling with her life since the day we exposed the network.” Aiden pulled her close. “But at least this way, we’re playing offense instead of defense.”
Ariella wanted to argue, wanted a better plan, a safer plan.
But they were out of safe options.
At eighty-nine days until Elena’s birthday, they sent a message through Victoria’s lawyers:
We’re willing to discuss terms.
The response came six hours later:
Good. You have until Day 60 to decide. After that, negotiations close and protocols activate. Choose wisely.
Sixty days.
They had Less than two months to find Victoria’s people, To dismantle her contingency, and save their daughter.
Or to make the hardest choice they’d ever faced:
Justice or family.
Truth or survival.
Everything they’d fought for…or everyone they loved.
“We’ll find another way,” Aiden promised.
“And if we don’t?”
He didn’t answer.
Because they both knew: if they didn’t find Victoria’s people in sixty days, they’d have to choose.
And there was no good choice, only terrible ones.
Elena’s first birthday was counting down.
And somewhere, hidden among people they trusted, Victoria’s contingency was waiting.
Patiently, Silently, Inevitable, Unless they could stop it.
The clock was ticking.